The Third Teacher – What does this look like?

Step Ahead | 28 June 2017

“We believe that our environment is the third teacher, inviting active investigation, exploration, creativity, independence, leadership and helping to develop a sense of social awareness and interaction with others.”

At Step Ahead several different philosophies inspire our practice; Reggio Emilia, Steiner, Montessori and Froebel being some. We believe that our children deserve the best, ie respect, challenges, beauty, open ended resources and each day we set the scene as an invitation for our children to feel welcome, explore, be independent, investigate, work and play. We talk of our environment as the “third teacher”, but what does this mean and what does this look like at Step Ahead?

The learning environment of the Reggio Emilia philosophy is referred to as the ‘third teacher’. The Reggio Emilia philosophy believes that children learn readily from their environment, therefore the environment is the ‘third teacher’, with teachers/parents and the child themselves being the first and second teachers.

We believe that our environment should support our children to continue to grow as capable and competent learners, constructors of their own knowledge. We present materials in a way that invites our children to interact with them, fostering curiosity, engagement and innovation. We consciously position the materials in small, well-defined spaces that invite greater engagement, concentration and investigation. Our task as teachers is to invent, arrange, manipulate or create the context and then the children will want to learn (Lubawy, 2009, p.135).

“What children learn does not follow as an automatic result from what is taught. Rather it is in a large part due to the children’s own doing as a consequence of their activities and our resources” (Malaguzzi, 1998, p.67).

At Step Ahead we can see that our environment is acting as the third teacher as our children work in and explore the environment confidently and independently. They are independently able to find, use and return materials that they chose themselves. Both children and their whanau are comfortable in our environment. Our children work collaboratively on shared interests.

“The greatest sign of success for a teacher … is to be able to say, ‘The children are now working as if I did not exist’” (Maria Montessori)

The teachers at Step Ahead have professionally identified our son’s needs, learning preferences and ‘quirks’. They cater for his interests and extend him in areas whereby his is learning to step outside his comfort zone. Each teacher is different and offers a new and special character that our son gains from. There is a sense of kindness, guidance, support and exploration throughout the centre.
The care and understanding of the centre is something that our family was looking for when we searched for a placement for our son. We have been and continue to be grateful for the match we have found.

We have no doubt that the transition to school next year, will run so much smoother and easier for us all. We have Carolyn and the team at Step Ahead to thank for this – in more ways than one.